


the frog prince

by Enrinkari



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen, oh most of the past of major characters aren't really known? my canon now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 22:30:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enrinkari/pseuds/Enrinkari
Summary: set back when they were kids, rastakhan has an issue practicing a shaman spell, and zul has to figure out how to get him out of the mess he made.





	the frog prince

**Author's Note:**

> these characters are dead in game so my canon now Blizzard. i get to decide how their childhood was.
> 
> i got this idea out of nowhere at work. sorry i typed it out but i had to.

The summer sun beat down on Dazar'Alor, making the already tropical weather even hotter. Though they were used to the weather, a lot of Zandalari used the heat to take a lazy day, and relaxed in the shade of their homes or local hang outs. Even the royal court were playing hooky from their duties today. It was just that kind of day.

In a corner of the palace, however, one troll was hard at work. Young Prince Rastakhan was practicing his shaman abilities alone, his teacher taking the day off. Looking about the human age of 13, he was fairly confident in most of his abilities. He had been training since he could remember, so he had good reason to feel good. There was just one spell that avoided his grasp. He wasn't good at Hexing others. Most of the time he tried, the spell wouldn't take, and if it did, only a few seconds. 

So he was practicing now on one of the family's pet raptors, an old girl they lovingly called Nanna. She was asleep as he kept trying to Hex her to no avail. He cursed under his breath. He was the future King of the Zandalari Empire, and he couldn't perform a simple Hex? If anyone found out it would be embarrassing! "The Loa are playing with me, Nanna," he mumbled, using the raptor as an excuse to talk to himself. "If they would any good they wouldn't let me fail at Hexing. Instead Rezan watches me and laughs. Stupid Loa." He got ready to try again, but felt the atmosphere of the room change. He ignored it and cast Hex again. As he did, he heard the roar of a devilsaur, then smoke filled the room and everything went black.

~~~

While Rastakhan had been born into the good life, Zul had not. Orphaned as a toddler, he always looked sickly. He never played with other children and always complained of headaches, unable to rest well because of them. He tried to explain how he kept seeing things, like fragments of a picture that had happened yet but would always happen in the future, but no one believed him, so he just kept to himself. That was until the day he saw his first full vision. It was of a stampeding direhorn trampling Prince Rastakhan. He quickly ran to the area and pulled the Prince out of the way in the nick of time. When asked how he knew, he hesitantly told the King and Queen about his vision. Relieved that their son was alive, they brought Zul into the royal court as a prophet in training, and also as a child Rastakhan could hang out with.

Zul had refused at first, of course. He knew how the others had treated him, why would the Prince be any different. But Rastakhan was persistent and Zul did feel a slight connection to him, and it didn't take long for them to become best friends. Zul was actually looking for Rastakhan at that moment, wanting to know if he would want to do something together, when he felt a wave of unease flood through him. His ears dropped. Something had happened to Rastakhan. He thought he heard a faint chuckle somewhere, but there was no one around. He heard a raptor squawk, and recognizing it as Nanna, he walked down the hall towards her noises.

As he walked into the room, he was greeted by a frog jumping squarely on his face. Growling, he pulled the frog off and held it out in front of him. "What do you think you're doing, child of Krag'wa?" He set the frog down, and watched as Nanna started to nudge it with her snout. He began to watch when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes that made his ears drop again in worry. Rastakhan's clothes lay in the room, but there was no Rastakhan in sight. "Oh no no no," he said as he scrambled over to them. "This isn't good." He looked back at Nanna, who was now chasing the frog around the room. "Nanna, what happened to Rasta?" he asked, knowing she wouldn't reply.

Nanna stopped chasing the frog and looked at Zul. She laid down flat and pointed at the frog. "Why are you so into this frog? There's much more important things to worry about! Just eat it already we need to find Rastakhan." Nanna glanced at Zul then back to the frog, giving a small whine. Zul tilted his head, thinking. Nanna was a smart raptor. She knew what Zul was saying. Rastakhan was, for lack of a better term, stupid sometimes when it came to practicing. Zul began to put two and two together. 

He slowly walked over to the frog and held out his hand. The frog jumped onto it and looked at Zul as he brought the frog up to his face. "Rasta? Is… Is that you?" Zul asked quietly. The frog gave a ribbit as an answer. Zul stood there in disbelief for a few, seemingly unable to process what was happening. It finally hit him and he let out a scream. "RASTA HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

"It was my doing, small one," he heard a commanding voice say, and he looked behind him to see an image of Rezan, the Loa of Kings, standing there.

"Mighty Rezan!" Zul instantly fell to the ground bowing. Rastakhan jumped as he fell and landed on the ground beside him. "I am not worthy enough to be near you."

"Don't worry, small one. I have a job for you." Rezan looked at Rastakhan. "Look after the foolish Prince while he is learning his lesson. This should teach him to have some manners when it comes to talking bad about the Loa, especially myself."

Zul sat up straight and looked at Rastakhan, who had puffed up to look bigger. "Really, Rasta? You bad mouthed your own Loa." Rastakhan turned to Zul and let out a small scream . "You really are an idiot." He looked back up at Rezan. "I will, mighty Rezan, but if I may ask a question, how long will he stay like this?"

"Until I think he has learned. Although you may change him back early if you find a way to." The image of Rezan began to fade. "Good luck, small one. I have a feeling you are going to need it." With one final roar, the image was gone.

Zul sighed and scooped up Rastakhan. "I doubt you'll learn your lesson anytime soon, so I guess we need to figure out a way to change your back before your parents find out anything." Rastakhan croaked and jumped on top of Zul's head, settling in. Zul gathered up Rastakhan's clothing and laid them on Nanna's back. "Let's go Nanna, we have a prince to defrog."

~~~

The market area of Dazar'Alor was as busy as ever, even with the heat bearing down. It was the one area where no one could take a lazy day. It was so busy no one even gave a second thought to the sight of a young troll with an older raptor by his side and a frog on his head.

Zul was looking at a hastily drawn map of the area, trying to make sense of it. He never came to the market, and all the noise was giving him a huge headache. Still, he had a duty to fulfill. "There should be some potion sellers around here with anti-Hex stuff, right?" he mumbled mostly to himself. "And then I think there's a shaman trainer nearby? She's not as good as the royal teachers but she should be good enough to fix this?"

Rastakhan wasn't paying attention. He also never came to the market, but because he was the prince; he had everything he needed in the palace. Even with his frog eyes, he was soaking in just how...amazing it was to him. That is until an insect flew by. He watched it fly into the distance and realized he was hungry. Would he really stoop so low as to eat a bug, even if he was a frog? As another insect flew by, he decided yes, he would, and hopped off Zul's head after the bug.

Zul was too lost in his map to notice his head becoming frogless, and almost ignored Nanna's constant nudging until she nearly knocked him over. "What, Nanna?!" he said impatiently. She motioned to his head. "Yes, I know. That's Rast-" He reached up to pat Rastakhan but didn't feel him. Zul's eyes went wide. "Oh. Oh no. No no no no." He frantically looked around him, but there was no frog in sight. "Nanna. Oh Loas. Oh spirits. I'm dead!" Zul began to shake. He would have to face the wrath of not only the King and Queen but Rezan as well.

Nanna whacked Zul with her tail to get his attention again and started walking in the direction she had seen Rastakhan hope away. "Oh. Okay, yes. Lead the way Nanna!" Nanna took off with Zul right behind.

~~~

Their chase led them outside of the capital and into the surrounding jungle. Zul had never been this far out before, and he was a little scared. He had no fighting abilities to speak of, and was weak in hand to hand combat. He swallowed his fear, though, as finding Rastakhan was more important. Plus, even in her older age, Nanna was still a force to be reckoned with.

Nanna was sniffing the ground, trying to pick up Rastakhan's scent. Zul watched closely, praying to Gonk that she could find it. Suddenly, she stood straight up and took off. Zul yelled and chased after her as fast as he could. He heard a splash and the croaking of a bunch of frogs, and he hoped he was hearing things.

As he reached where Nanna had gotten to, he saw he hadn't been. Nanna was swimming around in a small pond of water. Around the pond had to be at least 20 frogs. Zul looked at Nanna. "Nanna are you sure he's here?" The raptor chirped at him. "But which one?" She tilted her head. "You don't know, huh?" He held his arms out. "Rastakhan, get over here so we can change you back!" he yelled at the frogs. None of them moved, however. 

He squatted down and out his head in his hands, trying to think. "What am I going to do? I can't capture all these frogs. But I can't leave here without Rasta, who is probably too frog brained to know he's actually a troll." He was panicking hard when he suddenly remembered something from when he was back at the orphanage. The girls would often read and reenact stories, one of them being about a prince who was turned into a frog. He was saved, however, by a princess kissing him. The girls were all grossed out by the thought of kissing a frog, but would do it to marry a prince.

Zul looked up at the pond. Would that really work? Was he going to have to kiss all these frogs just to find Rastakhan? Wouldn't that mean he'd end up kissing Rasta? He felt himself begin to blush but shook his head to refocus. If it meant finding Rasta and changing him back he'd do it. He stood up and turned to a now lounging Nanna. "Keep track of which ones I kiss, so I don't kiss them twice," he said. He took a deep breath and sighed. Maybe he would be lucky and not only would this work but Rasta would be the first frog he kissed.

Of course, Zul wasn't that lucky, and had gone through all the frogs with no luck. "So did I just kiss all these frogs for no reason?!" he yelled at the sky. He plopped on the ground and began to panic again when a frog hopped into his lap. "Hmm. Did I kiss you already? I don't know. Might as well try one last time." He scooped the frog up gently and gave it a kiss. Suddenly there was a cloud of smoke which made Zul close his eyes. He felt a great weight on top of him, and when he opened his eyes, instead of the frog, there was Rastakhan, his eyes closed. He opened them slowly and they got wide when he saw Zul. Zul then remembered that not only was he still kissing Rastakhan, but Rastakhan was also naked.

He gave the troll a shove to push him off and stood up quickly, turning his back to Rastakhan. "About time I found your stupid ass," he grumbled, trying hard to stop himself from blushing in embarrassment.

"Zul… I…" Rastakhan felt weird. Was it the after effects of being a frog for so long? Was it all the bugs he ate? No, it was something different, but he couldn't place it. He got up and leaned against Nanna, who had ran over in excitement.

"Just get dressed and let's get you home before someone finds out you're missing." As the words left Zul's mouth, he heard yelling coming from the capital. "Aaaaaand we're too late for that! I should have just let you stay a frog! Now we're both in trouble!" He sighed in anger and stomped off.

Rastakhan got dressed, though his clothes were soaked thanks to Nanna's swim, and just stood there. What was this feeling he had? He felt like his heart was gonna beat out of his chest.

"Looks like the young prince has gotten his first crush," he heard a familiar voice say, though he knew the Loa wasn't there.

"Oh Rezan, why must you torture me so?" He heard Zul yell at him to hurry up, and trying hard to calm his heart, he followed after his friend, Nanna close behind.

**Author's Note:**

> "hey manda why you like having raptors in your stories" b/c i love dinosaurs shut up
> 
> is this how loa work? idk but it is in my world.


End file.
